ARRR. Shiver me timbers, whatever they are. HAH! Bet you thought this was going to be a tale about a lying pirate on a shake down cruise.
But nooo. It's about a group of LOST KJs on the John Bull Trail following the Adopt A Trail run on Sunday, May 21st. After lunch at Rock Camp, the group discussed what trail to run. Doug wanted to to John Bull and the rest of the gang went along with that. JJ and Gabe decided to go home to get other things done.
Annette, Burchie, Nolan, Will, Doug and I (Ted) went on up through Lake Arrowhead, Running Springs, Fawnskin and Big Bear City to 3N16 where access to the trail begins. At the base we stopped while some looked at the seemingly impossible rocks we had to climb over and around. As we encountered some obstacles, we found that four of the vehicles were fairly well set up but two weren't: Doug's Liberty had open differentials and Will's had only a limited slip in the rear. I had assumed everyone understood that this is probably the most difficult trail on the hill, and you know what happens when you assume something. Big DUH on my part, but I may not make that assumption too many more times, ten or twenty at most.
So as we reached the more difficult obstacles, many attempts and much rock placing was the order of the day, along with spotting. The Hard Rock Award goes to Nolan, who always jumped right in and started throwing them. Some strapping was also needed and that helped Doug until his "tow points" blew off. Fortunately, no further strapping was absolutely required by him from that point. When we got to the top of the hill after much work, someone asked if that was all the rocks. I explained that we had gotten by the most difficult ones but there were still a lot going down. Speaking of which, I got high centered on one by the two trees due to sliding off my line, but a little winching got me clear. Everyone else made it by two trees without incident. They'd go to any extreme to make me look bad, but in this case it was easy.
The Driver of the Day Award goes to Annette; I don't think anything really gave her any pause, literally and figuratively. A close second for Nolan, chugging quietly through as though we were on a graded trail. Way to go, you guys, and everyone else too.
Little by little we made our way down the rest of the trail and on out, completing the 5 mile section in 5 hours. Certainly not a record, but considering that some vehicles were limited, not bad! Especially since no one in the group (except me) had ever run it before. Burchie had gone last year as a passenger, but it's very different driving than riding, right Burchie? And the really good part is that only a very minor amount of body damage was sustained by Will and Doug AND NO ONE HAD ANY MECHANICAL DAMAGE!
This run definitely proved that the trail is ready for our Big Bear run.
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There was a couple spots where Sam and I got hung up, but with some manuvering and good spoting we were able to work our way out. It was more of a clearance issue that will be corrected next month. 
BTW, Glad you got to experience it before moving away. Now you will be spoiled for sure! 